SPRING

Back at Oxford Pot, the day's colour testing was planned. Fluorescein was to be put down Blind Pot in the hope of settling once and for all the destination of the Cow Dub water. At a predetermined time more dye was to be put down Innominate sinks so that those below could estimate how near they were to the surface. Also, we decided to loose a powerful brew of Dunnington's Red dye down the new sink which had just opened up below Oxford Pot. By this time, the sun was shining brightly, the first willow-wrens were singing in the ash trees, and the newly-returned cock wheatears were on the fence, splendid in their new plumage. When all the dye had gone we came back to Oxford Pot, to lie full length on the grassy bank, hoping for a snooze. The sterner realities of life had just begun to fade from our minds when above the steady splashing of the gill we heard Gemmell's muffled cry of "I'm up". We went across to help him bring up Dunnington on the lifeline. The green had been found in Broadway ten minutes after it had been put down Innominate Sinks, Butterfield's passage along Mushroom passage, was running bright green, the positive answer after so much speculation. Returning towards Oxford Circus, they found the stream becoming bloodier and bloodier until, at the circus itself, they saw an effluent like a slaughterhouse drain, discharging itself from the high level. Climbing up, they found that the 'blood' came down a 15ft pitch. After all these sights, we thought that the trickle still flowing down the Slit Sinks would not deter them. Alas, it was not so. "Turn off that water too," they said, "and we will go down".

Soon afterwards Bradshaw and the others came out, full of enthusiasm about their new passages beyond Easter Grotto. "You so-and-so's!" said our surveyor, "I'm not going up there until we've found an easier way out !". Obviously he was falling victim to Snakeitis, that progressive, and eventually fatal, disease which had already barred Aspin from the Promised Land. Back at the farm, it was pleasant to be able to idle about in the sunset light, listening to the snipes' drumming and to the curlews' love-calls. The high winds of morning had dropped. Grey smoke trails drifted away from each lowland village, and the lights of Lonsdale were beginning to peep out as we came down from the fell. When we stopped by the roadside to pick golden palm for the children, we heard the evening chorus of birdsong bursting from full throats. The long cold winter was over. The land was alive again, and would be kinder to us in our attempts to discover the secrets of Ease Gill.

On April 22nd, after ten day's drought, we set off in a warm cloudy dawn. Beyond Skipton we saw our hills softly outlined through the springtime haze. Already the primroses lay thickly along the railway embankments, and in Settle the rooks were standing sentry above their nests in the treetops near the railway line. Up at Bullpot the yard was dry, dusty even. No need for wind-proof clothes on our trek across the moor. Today, the cooling breezes came welcome against our opened shirts. In Ease Gill we found a note saying that Bradshaw and Myers had gone to explore the far parts beyond Thackray's passage and asking for dye to be put down the Top Sinks. We dug out this hole. Gemmell climbed down with the fluorescein, finding no more than trickles from the walls running towards the roaring sound of water far below. He had to make swallow's nests of clay, stirring in the dye with his hands. Several times he broke these dams to release the coloured water. He looked very peculiar when he came out, even after washing in the stream. We did a little digging at Slit Sinks, Innominate Sink, and Blind Pot before the underground party came out. They told us that the stream from the final waterfall chamber had been bright green, but that the other entrant at Limerick Junction was clear. (They had followed this passage for 200 yards before reaching the usual black boulder choke).

On April 29th, Bradshaw, Ashworth and Myers were at last able to get down Boundary Pot to survey the new section right down to the final shattered Hiroshima Cavern, in the floor of which no-one dare crawl because of the unstable boulders. When Gemmell linked up the survey, it turned out that this shattered section lay quite close to the end of Thackray's passage. One day some potholer without imagination may find a way through the jumble of loose boulders, and if by that time Lancaster Hole has been entered from Bull Pot, it will be possible to follow the finest underground route in England from Bull Pot to Boundary Pot, natural openings 1.15 miles apart.

On this day and on May 9th, work was done at the Innominate Sinks, which led to Aspin, Jowett and Gemmell getting underground into a short system which led, alas, to a broad but too-low bedding plane heading towards the aven at the far end of Oxford Pot's Broadway. Down at the Dolly Tubs we found that the new Rosy Sink was dry, so we began to dig there also. Eventually we got Gemmell underground. Here too they were stopped, by a large boulder wedged across a promising passage. Meanwhile the underground party of Red Rose members had been surveying Bradshaw's passage beyond the Easter Grotto. When this survey was plotted, we knew that they had followed the extension of the main drain to within a hundred yards of the Top Sinks, passing to the north of the great shakehole near the sheepfold which Gemmell called 'Gertoil'. The pieces were fitting together nicely. If only we could find that easy way in !